chapter 6

settling in

CHAPTER 6

            The next morning, I woke up at eight, to the sun shining in the French doors of my bedroom. I stretched and got out of bed, and realizing I was just in my lingerie, I threw on a housecoat and went into the kitchen to make coffee.

            I turned on a local country music station and went out on the balcony. There were already quite a few people out on the beach, some fishing, some running and some just sunbathing.

            When my coffee was finished, I went in and poured a cup and popped a French onion bagel in the toaster and pulled a tub of Philadelphia Cream Cheese out of the refrigerator. I took my breakfast back out to the balcony and sat, sipping coffee and eating.

            I decided I was going to forgo exploring Mobile today to spend the day on the beach, but first, I wanted to call Colt. I picked up my phone and found his number in my contacts and hit ‘call.’ He answered on the second ring.

            “Good morning, beautiful,” his sweet, sultry voice greeted me.

            “Good morning! How was your lunch with your grandma yesterday?”

            “Pretty good. I spent a couple hours with her and then came home and finished cleaning up from the party Friday night. I take it you made it to Mobile just fine?”

            “I did. I need to get my things unpacked, but I think I am going to spend the morning on the beach and maybe do a little bit of exploring later.”

            “That sounds like fun. Have you met anyone yet?”

            “I have, actually. I was unloading groceries and two guys were walking from the pool and stopped to help me. They are juniors as South Alabama and live in the apartment below me. They seemed pretty cool.”

            “Oh, so am I going to have to fend them off you when I come down in a few weeks?”

            “I doubt it, I don’t think they are into me other than a friend,” I said, laughing.

            “I somehow find that hard to believe, you are a beautiful girl from out of state, living alone. I’m pretty sure one of them will be hitting on you before long.”

            “Well, if they do, they do. The only person I am interested in is still in North Carolina.”

            “Now that’s what I like to hear. I am glad you met some people, though, in case you need anything. You are down there by yourself, and even when I am over in Tallahassee, I’ll be three hours away and really only be able to come out on the weekends.”

            “I know. I’ll be okay, I’ve pretty much always been alone.”

            “You can always call me if you need anything and I will do my best to help you.”

            “Thank you, Colt,” I told him, smiling.

            “Well, sweetie, I am going to let you go and get your beach on. Is it okay if I call you later on this afternoon?”

            “I’d like that. Bye, Colt,”

            “Bye, Harleigh.”

            I closed my phone and sat there a few minutes, trying to calm my spastic heart. That’s what Colt did to me. I was, in two days, falling in love with a boy I have known all of my life, and I didn’t know what to do. I couldn’t wait for him to get down to Tallahassee.

            I went inside and dug through my suitcases until I found a bathing suit and put it on. I picked up a towel, sunglasses, my beach chair, portable CD player, water, and cigarettes and headed out to the bay.

            It was a bright Sunday morning, and the humidity was already so thick I could have sworn I could cut it with a knife. The sky was bright blue without a cloud in sight.

            I found a place on the beach and sat my things down. I found the local country music station I had been listening to inside, lit a cigarette, sat back and relaxed. I looked out over the bay and saw the town of Daphne, sailboats and people riding jet skis. That is something I’ll have to do one day, take a jet ski for a ride in the bay, probably when Colt comes to visit.

            I had fallen asleep and woke up to my name being called. At first, I was confused, I was in Mobile, and no one here should be calling my name. I forgot about meeting Jared and Seth the night before, so it had to be them.

            “Hey there, sleeping beauty,” Seth said, sitting down on the sand beside me.

            “Hey,” I said, pulling my sunglasses up and wiping my eyes. “Where is Jared?”

            “He had to work today, so I thought I’d come hang out on the beach for awhile,” Seth said, turning up his ever-present Miller Lite. “How long have you been out here?”

            “I don’t know. What time is it?” I asked.

            “Just after twelve,” Seth said.

            “Well then, since about nine,” I said, laughing. “I guess I was still tired from all of the traveling and graduation festivities.”

            “When did you graduate?”

            “Friday afternoon and then I went to a party and yesterday morning, I got up and drove down here.”

            “Why did you leave so soon after graduation?”

            “It’s a long story,” I said, lighting up a Camel.

            “I’ve got time,” Seth said, smiling at me.

            I smiled back. I hardly knew this guy, but I felt comfortable with him and thought maybe I would find in him a friend. To top it off, he was nice to look at.

            “Well, you already know I’m from up around Raleigh. My dad is Charles Robinson, democrat, U.S. Senate,” I began.

            “Your dad is Charles Robinson?”

            “Yes, unfortunately,” I laughed. “We haven’t gotten along in years, and my mama died years ago, so it has been just us; or, just me, and the maid, rather, living in his Cary mansion. I came to hate living there, being by myself all the time and fighting with that damn Senate chair for my daddy’s affection. So, I started saving money and working my a*s off in school so I could get into a good college, and hopefully a scholarship and get the hell away from Cary. We got into it graduation night, I was up in my room, getting ready to go over to my friend Hillary’s house before the party when ol’ Charlie decided to show up….after graduation. Of course, he had an important vote and couldn’t be there and I completely lost my s**t and blew up at him. I grabbed my suitcases to leave, as I was already planning on leaving yesterday, anyway, and started walking out. He told me that if I walked out that door he would cut me off indefinitely. I wasn’t worried about it, I got a full scholarship to school that I didn’t tell him about and I have a nice little nest egg saved up. I’m good.”

            “The rest is history?” Seth asked.

            “Exactly. I’m here, living my life the way I want to, pursuing my own dreams and I am away from him. I feel better already.”

            “I’m glad. You seem like too nice a girl to have to put up with that bullshit. What did he say when you left?”

            “Nothing much. He called me yesterday when I was sitting in a diner having lunch just outside of Atlanta to apologize and tell me if I needed anything to call him. But I wont. I’m bound and determined to do this without him. I have money in the bank, my mama’s parents will help me if I need it, and I will get a job if I have to. I am finished trying to get his attention.”

            “Good for you. I never really liked Robinson, anyway, and after hearing you talk about him, I really don’t like him.”

            “I hear you aren’t the only one. My waitress told me yesterday that no one around her parts cared for him, either. Too liberal for them, I guess. He’s too liberal for me, too. I have turned out to be Conservative as hell,” I said, laughing.

            “That’s not a bad thing.”

            “It is in the Robinson household.”

            “I can imagine,” Seth said, crushing his empty can. “Do you want to go grab a bite for lunch? I am starving.”

            “That sounds good, I’m getting hungry, too. Let me run up to my apartment and put some clothes on and we will go,” I said, standing up to gather my belongings. Seth got most of it before I even had a chance.

            Seth helped me carry my things up to my apartment and then left me to get ready, while he went down to his and Jared’s apartment to change his clothes.

            I threw on a pair of short American Eagle cut-offs, George Strait concert t-shirt and my habitual brown Rainbow flip-flops. I applied more deodorant, sprayed some perfume, grabbed my purse and sunglasses and walked downstairs to meet Seth. I was about to knock on the door when he swung it open.

            “Hey, I was just coming up to see if you were ready,” he said, smiling. He had on a pair of khaki cargo shorts and plain white t-shirt, with Rainbow flip-flops just like mine.

            “Well, I am. So where are we going?”

            “What are you in the mood for?” Seth asked, walking beside me to the parking lot.

            “I’m not picky.”

            “Good, then I know just the place,” Seth said, unlocking a black Honda Civic parked right beside my Tahoe, and opened the passenger door for me to get in.

            “Thank you.”

            “You’re welcome,” he said, closing the door and circling around the car to get into the driver’s seat.

 

            We went to The Boiling Pot, a seafood restaurant out near the airport. Seth held the door for me as we went in, and held my chair out when I sat down. He was such a gentleman, and it had me thinking, why are guys being like this with me all of a sudden? I had boyfriends all through high school and none of the ever treated me the way Seth and Colt have been. Is there something in the water, or are there a few Southern Gents left in this world? I choose to think the later.

            Seth and I talked all through lunch about everything under the sun. It was nice, he made me laugh and I felt as though I could completely be myself. I was glad to have already made a friend down here, but I couldn’t help but wonder what his motives were.

            When we got back to our apartment complex, we said goodbye at his car and I went up to take an afternoon siesta, the sun that morning and a belly full of steamed oysters had tired me out.  

            I slept for three hours and when I woke up I had five missed calls on my cell phone: Joe, Hillary, Madison, Colt and my dad.  I got out of bed and padded into the kitchen to get a bottle of Aquafina, lit a cigarette and walked out to the balcony to start returning phone calls. I called my dad first, so I could get it over with.

            “Hey baby,” my dad said when he answered the phone.

            “Hey dad.”

            “How was your drive? Are you doing alright?”

            “It was fine, just a little long, but I made good time. I’m doing great. I just got up from a nap, I was out on the beach all morning and went to lunch with my downstairs neighbor and passed out when I got home.”

            “You have already met people? I’m glad you won’t be completely alone.”

            “I’m used to being alone, daddy. I have been for some time now,” I said, rolling my eyes.

            “I know, and I can’t apologize enough. I just hate that I saw it too late and I wish I knew how to make it up to you.”

            “I wish I knew, too.”

            “Well, baby, I’ll let you go, I just wanted to check in. Call me if you need anything. I love you.”

            “Love you, too, daddy. Bye.”

            I hung up the phone. What was with him? He has hardly been apart of my life for the past fifteen years and now all of a sudden he wants to be my dad? I just don’t understand. Maybe I got to him the last couple days, but he is a day late and a dollar short. I’m not going to cut him out of my life, I don’t want to be an orphan, but damn. I wish he would just let me be.

            I called everyone back, saving Colt for last, hoping I would be able to talk to him for a while.

            “Hey there, Alabama girl,” he said, answering on the second ring.

            “Hey there, Florida boy,” I said, laughing.

            “What are you up to?”

            “Not much, I took a nap and woke up to a million missed calls, so I have been calling everyone back. What are you doing?”

            “Not too much, either, just sitting on the back deck having a beer and waiting on you to call me back.”

            I smiled and my heart started beating faster, and I felt my face heating up. Damn him.

            “I saved you for last, hoping I’d get to talk to you for a little bit.”

            “Oh really? Do you miss me or something?”

            “Or something.”

            “Well, well. Seems I have made an impression on the Alabama girl,” Colt said, and I could hear the smile in his voice.

            “Maybe you have.”

We talked for two hours. When we got off the phone, the sun was just starting to set, and I decided I’d take a walk along the bay and enjoy the sunset. The evening was still warm and humid, and the sand felt good between my toes. I already loved Mobile.